Amber Hollingsworth explains Vivitrol, a monthly injection that blocks opioid receptors to prevent heroin and pain pills from working. Unlike Suboxone, it removes the option to use while you build recovery supports. It works best paired with counseling and recovery programs, not alone.
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In this video, I'm going to tell you all about one of the most effective strategies that we've been using to help yourself or a loved one get off and stay off of pain pills or heroin. And. Or some of you may have watched my video on naloxone, which is the life saving medication that you can get from your pharmacist, which you really should know about if you have a loved one or you know, people who are struggling with pain pill addiction or heroin addiction, or maybe even who just take pain pills for medical reasons. And you just should have that on hand. But this video is about a medication called Vivitrol. Now, Vivitrol is not an opiate replacement medication like Suboxone. You see, Suboxone is an opiate itself mixed with a little naloxone, an opiate blocker. And it's used to sort of help people maintain instead of going into withdrawal. So basically it's sort of replacing one opiate with another opiate. But Vivitrol is a whole different thing. Vivitrol is made of naltrexone or naloxone, which is an opiate blocker. So there's no opiate in it. Basically, this medication goes to your brain, finds your little opioid receptor sites, and I like to picture it like it just sort of plugs them up so that if someone uses again like heroin or pain pills, they can't really get any effect from it. So basically, when people are on this medication, Vivitrol, they're not gonna go out there and try to get high because they know they won't. And why waste the money if you know it's not gonna work? Vivitrol, like I said, is naloxone, but it comes in a once a month injection. Now, you can take naloxone or naltrexone in an oral form and a doctor can prescribe it to you and you can take it every day, which I do think is somewhat helpful. But I really like the once a month injection, Vivitrol, because, you know, if you or a loved one goes and gets that, then you're probably pretty good for a month. You know they're not going to be using again for a month. And you can get it again the next month and the next month and early on in recovery. I think this is so important because it makes it easier. The reason it makes it easier is not because it's getting you high or doing anything like that. It's because it takes using pain pills or Heroin off the table, which means you know you're not going to do it because it's not going to work. So you don't have to keep deciding over and over and over, like, will I, won't I, like, should I, shouldn't I? And you don't have to worry about that willpower running out because this medication is holding you steady. And I think that's so very, very important, especially in the early days of recovery, you know, like those first six months or so or the first three or four months after coming out of a treatment center. This medication will help keep. Take that option of using off the table while you work your recovery program, while you build supports and you create new habits, new people, places and things. I'm not telling you the. It's the answer, the end all, be all. But what I am saying is it can keep someone stable enough to be able to put a recovery program in place, which is so important. So very often when we are seeing people on an outpatient basis, or even the young men that we see that are staying in a recovery residence while attending patient, if they have a problem with pain pills or heroin, we want them on the Vivitrol injection. Because you know what? It clears up all that cravings to a large degree, because you stop having to obsess about it, because you know you're not going to do it. And that leaves all that brain power to put towards your recovery so you can focus in. You can do what you need to do to build a new life and new habits and get rid of this problem forever. Now, some people might think, well, that's cheating. If they're on Vivitrol, it means that they didn't really mean it and they're not doing it their self. You know what I say to that? That's baloney. Because what I think that means is that when someone takes Vivitrol, it means they understand just exactly how powerful, baffling and cunning their addiction is and that they are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that they don't use. So if you or someone else tells you that, it means someone's not doing it on their own and they're using a crutch. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. It means they've decided that for sure, no matter what, they're not using and they're going to get this injection to make sure that they don't use. To me, it is the opposite of not doing it yourself. It means you are willing to do Whatever it takes and go to any length to do it. Now you might be wondering, where do you get this medication and how does it work and all that kind of stuff. Not just any doctor will prescribe Vivitrol. The reason is because you need a little special training to do it, because you need to understand what it is and how it works. And also because it's a specialty medication that has to come out of a specialty pharmacy. And because it is given in an injection form, you have to be working with a doctor or psychiatrist that has the capability, or at least some sort of outside resource that they're connected to, to be able to administer the injection. So here at Hope4Families, we work with a specific psychiatrist who sees our patients and prescribes it. And that medication gets ordered out of a specialty pharmacy and goes to a local private pharmacy, which we've created a relationship with. And they then administer the injection there so the patient doesn't have to pick it up, they don't have to take it anywhere else. It's once a month, it's done. And so it's a very effective system if you can get the things in place now, don't think you don't have to go to counseling or meetings or whatever the rest of your program is. We find that is a super effective thing to do while you're also doing those other things. Most of you know that opiate addiction is like the crisis of the century in this country. And there's a lot to know and understand about it. There's a lot of medications out there like methadone, naloxone, Suboxone, Sublocade, which is a brand new form of Suboxone that I just did a video on and it's a once a month injection. You really need to educate yourself about all of these things, exactly what they are. If you or a loved is struggling with an opiate or heroin addiction, don't just go out there and listen to the first thing that's told to you. Educate yourself, find out what these things are. A good place to start is there are videos on each one of these medications right here on the YouTube channel. In addition to understanding all those things about the medications and the options and what they do and what they don't do, you also really need to understand about the psychological and spiritual, spiritual aspects of recovery. One really good way to educate yourself is to subscribe to this YouTube channel, because all of that information is right here, plus lots and lots more. For tons more information on all things addiction and recovery and lots of free expert advice. Make sure and subscribe and hit the bell so you don't miss a thing.
